she was 22 when she ran 30 km for the first time. She turned out great, she took fourth place at the World Championships in Oberstdorf. It lost only with the greats and Virpi Kuitunen and with the Russian Natalia Baranowa -Masa³kina.
This happened in February 2005, and in June all the results of the Polish woman with the husband were crossed out. The young competitor was disqualified for two years for doping. Fortunately, Justyna was believed when she explained that she had taken illegal dexamethasone to treat a chronically injured Achilles tendon, and Polish activists did not report it. In December 2005, the penalty was reduced from two years to six months and the penalty was included in the months that had already passed. Thanks to this, in 2006 Kowalczyk made her debut at the Olympic Games. .
Justyna Kowalczyk always showed herself excellently in the longest and most difficult races. At 30 km, she was the world champion (Liberec 2009) and Olympic champion (), where she won two Olympic medals (out of all five) and three M¦ medals (five).
Now, at the Beijing 2022 Olympics, the royal distance will be run for the first time in his career. The Olympic rookie is a player led by Justyna Kowalczyk and coach Aleksander Wierietielny. Marcisz will turn 22 in May. She has already presented herself very well in Beijing – she was 16th in the combined race (7.5 km breaststroke + 7.5 km freestyle), 29th in the 10 km classic, 39th in the sprint, 9th in team sprint with Monika Skinder and the 14th in the relay race.
It would be great if, at 30 km, Marcisz discovered such possibilities and will to fight as Kowalczyk had. The race starts on Sunday at 4.00 Polish time. At the start of the 30 km line, we will see another one, Magdalena Kobielusz.
On the occasion of the last competition of the Beijing Olympics, we recall the history of perhaps the most important race in the rich career of Justyna Kowalczyk. At the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, after a passionate chase for Marit Bjoergen and a fight at the finish, Polka defeated her biggest rival.
Bad place and bad emotions. “I hate, I hate”
- 10 km by boat: Bjoergen br ± z, Kowalczyk fifth place.
- Sprint: Bjoergen gold, Kowalczyk silver
- Combined race: Bjoergen gold, Kowalczyk bronze
- Relay: Bjorgen and her friends gold, Kowalczyk sixth place later lost by Kornelia Marek’s cheering slip-up
The Games in Vancouver were a Norwegian show off. Kowalczyk came to the routes in Whistler as the leader of the World Cup, who from the beginning of that winter to the Olympics won as many as seven starts, including the Tour de Ski series. And which as many as 13 out of 21 runs finished on the podium. But in Polka she was always in the shadow of Bjoergen.
Norwegian for the Olympics missed as many as 14 starts. Before Vancouver, she lost two out of three direct clashes with Kowalczyk – in Rogla and in Otepa on 15 and 10 km. They only won a hand-to-hand sprint game in Rogli. But in Vancouver she seemed insurmountable both at sprint and distance. And in the Polish team and among her fans, there was growing impatience.
– This is a place that I hate, hate and I hope that I will never come back here – said Kowalczyk. A year earlier, she had been nervous that the fight for Olympic medals would take place on more touristic than competitive routes. In Vancouver she also got angry when she heard that the coach, Aleksander Wierietielny, might have led her badly through the season. That maybe it was necessary to choose the path of the rival, which missed the starts in.
“She’s here to breathe.” It was then and there that the asthma war began
And it ended with a row about asthma medications. Bjoergen, reborn after a completely unsuccessful year 2009, made it clear that she started using other, stronger medications for asthma. Justyna Kowalczyk criticized this as a shortcut.
– She came here to inhale, then run, and let her take care of it, instead of undermining the jury’s decision – said Kowalczyk after the combined run. It was February 17, 2010. Bjoergen won the 7.5 km classic and the 7.5 km zipper, the second was Anna Haag, and only the photo finish showed that in the sprint duel Kowalczyk and Kristin Stoermer Steiry was better for the tip of the shoe. But it was not the end of Justyna’s nerves. The jury immediately informed her that she had to consider the protest of the Norwegian team. It turned out that at one point Kowalczyk covered part of the route at a walking pace, and there was still a classic style. When the Norwegian protest was rejected, Bjoergen, when asked for a comment, was to say that the rules were meant to be respected. And then the war began.
It was a multi-year war. And in Vancouver it lasted 10 days, until the next sprint finish of the Polish and Norwegian women. – Marit feels visibly endangered, because she knows well that without her helpers she would not have much to do with me and other girls – argued Kowalczyk between the combined run and the marathon ending the Olympic competition. the team commented that the Poles were getting on their nerves because they had not won anything in Vancouver yet.
Coach Wierietielny planned everything
On February 27 it changed. The distance of 30 km was covered by the classic women calmly, up to the 20th kilometer. Then, after changing skis, Steira left the stadium the fastest.
She decided to attack, tried to escape alone the rest of the group of 12, gained a few seconds of advantage. But after 21 km, Bjoergen, who was chasing her, was losing only a second, and the one who was chasing both Norwegian women Kowalczyk – another second. At that moment, the next players stopped counting. Especially that Bjoergen immediately responded to Steira’s attack and the pace was only picking up.
After 22.3 km, the queen of Vancouver was leading with an advantage of 5.3 seconds over Kowalczyk and 10.4 seconds over Aino-Kaisa Saarinen. She was third at the finish line, winning bronze, losing as much as one minute and five seconds to the Polish and Norwegian women. Saarinen had no chance, because 7.5 km before the end, Kowalczyk and Bjoergen started the race we had been waiting for from the beginning.
Bjorgen defended her 5-6-second advantage for three kilometers, and Kowalczyk, instructed by coach Aleksander Wierietielny, did not rush into a mad chase, although it was obvious that she would like to catch up with her opponent as soon as possible. – Justyna said it was a miracle that a trainer was there who told her to run calmly step by step and push away with a stick after pushing away with a stick. He said “you will catch up with her outside the stadium and then attack and pass her”. This is exactly what happened. It is incredible – reported the correspondent of “Gazeta Wyborcza” for those games, Robert B³oñski.
She caught up, overtook and … “I wanted to apologize for that”
Kowalczyk caught up with Bjoergen about 4.5 km before the end of the run. She lurked for a long time, did not give her changes in the lead. And when she attacked 1.5 km before the finishing line, she did not give up the first place despite insane attacks by her rival.
– I did not think that I would win Olympic gold here. Really, that is no backup on my part. I wanted to run here as well as possible and it worked. In two years I achieved practically everything in the race. That is why I pay tribute to my trainer, who led the girl to such successes in ten years, said Kowalczyk after her biggest victory in her career at that time.
– I am hyper satisfied in terms of sports, it could have been better in every other matter – she added. When asked what she was not happy with, she returned to the asthma issue. – That at this point, during the games, I started an asthma storm. I wanted to apologize for that. This was not the time to talk about it. It was not a personal attack on Marit, which has always been a sports idol for me and will remain so. For me, this is the idea of a runner. But the problem of asthma in our discipline has not disappeared, there are many sick people and this needs to be solved somehow, she explained.
“But the balls!” Irena Szewiñska asked for an autograph
Kowalczyk took the Olympic gold with my hand. – And it was amazing. We met before the decoration and imagine she wanted an autograph from me! I was laughing. Gee, I’m giving Irena the autographs? But the balls! First, the seven-time medalist wants an autograph from me, and then she hangs a gold medal around my neck. No, it’s too much for one evening – she was glad. – I am not thinking about whether I will be equal to Mrs. Irena in the number of medals won in the Olympics. The athlete does not think about such things, but trains and fights – she added.
With gold, silver and bronze from Vancouver, as well as with gold from 2014 and bronze from Turin from 2006, Kowalczyk has a total of five Olympic medals. Two less than Irena Szewiñska, who died in 2018. And only our legendary athlete is better than our legendary cross-country skier in terms of the number of Olympic pulleys.
The Kowalczyk medal from Vancouver was only the second gold won by Poland in the history of the Winter Olympics. The first one in 1972 was won by ski jumper Wojciech Fortuna. After Justyna’s performance from Canada, the Olympic championship for Poland was won by: she herself at the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014, a skater also in Sochi and three times by Kamil Stoch: twice in Sochi and once in Pyongyang in 2018.
Source: Sport
Tristin is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
